


The Fruit of Confession

by livxuan



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Character Study, F/F, One Shot, azula just being a sweetheart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:15:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24995965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livxuan/pseuds/livxuan
Summary: As the heiress to her father's company, Azula was not allowed to be a person. She was an image- an asset until a liability, as her father saw it. Ty Lee, on the other hand, saw another side of her on a particularly vulnerable night spent over tears and chamomile.
Relationships: Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 143





	The Fruit of Confession

Azula wasn’t raised to show weakness. She didn’t cry, or at least, she never told a soul if she did, and she didn’t let any sort of criticism get to her. Those sorts of things were weaknesses beyond any form of description, and weak was the worst thing you could be. Vulnerability and all those other human nature born nuisances blemished her perfect-posture reputation. All she needed to be was the prodigy everyone saw, and nothing else mattered. After all, anything else was a weakness, and if there was one thing a prodigy of Azula’s caliber could never be, it was weak.

So why on earth was she knocking on Ty Lee’s apartment door a few minutes past midnight, crying and shivering in her red pencil skirt made of a material quite unsuited for the cold, November weather? It was the very definition of what she considered weak. Her once perfect mascara ran down her face, her red lips whimpering, pleading underneath her breath that Ty Lee wasn’t asleep. Azula’s signature perfectly symmetrical hair had gone astray, raven hair escaping her once sleek, consummate bun, and the skeletons in her closet that rained down her face pooled at her black, toe-pinching heels.

“I didn’t know where else to go,” Azula sniffled once the door creaked upon, too ashamed to look her savior in the eye. All she could see was her pink, satin pajama pants freckled with strawberries and Rabaroo slippers. Those stupid slippers. She always called them childish, but now, they felt like home. Her mind raced, surely Ty Lee found her pitiful. Frail and incapable. Weak, the very adjective that haunted her; the very adjective she found herself obsessing over. It was a terrifying thought, and she considered the idea of just turning around and pretending this encounter never happened. She had her wallet on her, perhaps a motel would have vacancy.

“Oh Zulie,” the other girl pulled her into her arms, feeling the rise and fall of her body as Azula sobbed into her camisole. “Come on in.”

It didn’t take long for Azula to find herself on Ty Lee’s couch, swaddled up in a fluffy white blanket, watching the toffee haired girl put a kettle of water onto the stove. She would normally find it patronizing and an insult to her maturity, yet in this instance, her cozy state was welcomed without complaint. Azula took in her surroundings- it had been so long since she had visited Ty Lee she almost forgot what her living room looked like. The brown couch, decorated in cotton candy colored pillows, faced a television, the kitchen area to her left. The hallway between the living room and kitchen led to the bathroom and bedroom- which Azula remembered to be an explosion of pink. Ty Lee spoke, making her jump. “You wanna talk about it?”

She scowled a sharp, “No.” After a moment, she sighed, knowing that that front never worked on Ty Lee. She knew her far better than to think she would fall for that- Ty Lee wouldn’t stop pestering her until she changed her tone. She mumbled, feeling tiny and shattered as she pulled the blanket tighter around her body, “Yeah, I kind of do.”

Ty Lee hopped onto the counter, crossing her legs as she rested her chin in her palm. Her grey, childlike eyes widened, as if to tell her to go on. Eyeing the ground once more, Azula murmured, “It was father. He yelled at me and then gave me ten minutes to tidy my room before he kicked me out. I took the bus here- I’ve never taken the bus!”

She wiped away a black, mascara-dyed tear as she elaborated before Ty Lee could ask why such an event would occur. “He- he said I was a failure- I messed up at the meeting today and embarrassed him. And Chan broke up with me last week. He said the benefits of power-couple status weren’t worth it, said I was awful to be around. He said I don’t know what it's like to be vulnerable and let myself be small,” Azula looked up at Ty Lee, admitting, “But I do know, I know because I’m lost. I’m lost in a world falling before me and I’m stressed and, and I just don’t know what to do, Ty.”

The impuissant nature of it all was sickening and against everything she knew, but it spilled off her tongue, rushing to a blissful escape before she could filter her words all-powerful. In that moment, there was something tragically tempting about weakness, forbidden in every sense. Letting herself cry and letting her emotions just pour out, the weakest route she could take, was so strangely appealing. Each venting word was another bite into the apple, and the fruit of confession was a drug unlike any other. She sniffled once more, pulling her arm out of the blanket to wipe tears away.

“What part of this is stressing you out?” Her eyebrows furrowed, still unable to process the rare sight before her. It was like the aftermath of breaking the china that proudly stood in the cabinet. You’re so sure that her position is unwavering and she’s the most secure plate in the world, and then you blink and she’s a million sobbing pieces on the floor.

Azula frowned at the question, countering, “What isn’t there to be stressed about? I’m supposed to be this picturesque heiress of an empire, some heiress that knows all about stocks and investors off the top of my head. I’m supposed to be perfect and I just don’t know if I can keep up with it anymore. I can’t be a human, I can’t be a nineteen year old girl who does nineteen year old things- whatever those are. I’m too busy being a name. An image! I’m Azula, heiress of Ozai first and daughter second. I don’t know how much longer I can be an image.” 

“Maybe it's because none of this is for you, Zulie.” Ty Lee suggested, the sound of whistling boiling water causing her to get off from her seat on the counter to finish preparing the tea. She lathered the bottom of one cup in a thin layer of golden honey, placing two tea bags in the cups. The honeyed cup was for her, of course, Azula wasn’t one for sweet beverages. Ty Lee had always teased her about how she actually enjoyed bitter tea and face-scrunching black coffee. She poured in the hot water, continuing, “I mean, this whole business woman thing? Who’s idea was that? You loved theater in high school, you loved it like you wanted to pursue it until Zuko left and the CEO-after-Sozin route he was supposed to take fell onto your shoulders. Seriously, Zulie, Sozin?”

Sozin Academy. It was the most prestigious university in the country, named after her great grandfather, of course. It’s perks included bragging rights and hours of homework. Not to mention the fact that when she wasn’t studying, she was under her father’s wing, watching him conduct meetings in his office and taking notes. Her social life was one far from what you’d expect someone as financially blessed (or filthy rich, as Ty Lee put it once), and of course conventionally beautiful as Azula to live. 

“Entirely his, sure, but what am I supposed to do? Just quit? Drop out? If I’m not the daughter my father wants, this happens. I get berated and kicked out for the night.” Her suddenly shaky, gasping breaths held back more tears than she could ever imagine, her whimpering voice trembling with each syllable. “It’s embarrassing, it really is. I feel like my brother.” 

Zuko, being the firstborn, was the original heir. That of course changed when he fled on his eighteenth birthday with his high school girlfriend Mai, the both of them loading up the van he sold his BMW for before leaving in the dead of night to work at his uncle’s tea shop a few cities away. Their father reminded her that he was an impoverished failure who was no longer family in his eyes any time she dared to have a non-permitted hobby like her predecessor. That meant almost any hobby, of course. She believed what her father had to say about him until a year ago, when he called her to announce he was a married man. Zuko had apparently sent her an invitation to the wedding, and upon confrontation, her father proudly told her he had intercepted the letter and let the fireplace eat it. Her brother’s happiness, undoubtedly stemming from his liberation, was something she secretly envied, though the idea of being like him in her father’s eyes was one that made her heart fall to her stomach. He had been cut out from the will, but he was richer than Azula would ever be.

Ty Lee kept her mouth shut, letting Azula speak. “Why can’t I be good enough? I do everything right yet I never get treated like a daughter! I’m an investment that ought to make a profit if I want to keep my surname.”

Finally, she sighed, handing her a cup of tea whilst taking a seat on the couch. “Azula, what’s so appealing about being good enough for someone else?” Ty Lee knew the answer. All her life, attention was a prize at the end of a battle, a battle fought between her and six identical sisters, the seven all bearing names her parents mixed up. Even if she won that attention, she ran the risk of being praised as Ty Lin. Like Azula, Ty Lee had to be perfect to be average, to even steal a second’s worth of eye contact. She knew where appeal lies in being “good enough” in her situation. Yet, she, as would anyone else, also understood that looking through the eyes of the girl beside her, “good enough” could mean much more than attention. Zuko wasn’t good enough, and now his name was only judgmentally whispered by gossiping maids in the darkest corners of their estate.

Azula took the cup, not saying a word. Her’s was blush colored with raspberry red hearts, the other girl sipping out of a white and cat-shaped mug, which she recalled to be Ty Lee’s favorite cup. They were both cute, she had to admit. The chamomile tea bag was still seeping in the amber colored liquid, keeping her hands warm. Eventually, Azula spoke. “I suppose ever since my mother left, I looked to my father for any love I could manage to get. To compensate for her being put off by me, and for her leaving. My brother and I were asleep when she snuck off- I never got a goodbye. She didn’t even give me a goodnight kiss that night because I had angered her and was sent to my room right after dinner. For so long I blamed myself for it. I know she never truly liked me as a person, and I question how long she loved me as a daughter. I was taking after the person she hated, the resemblance between my father and I is horrifyingly undeniable. Of course she didn’t love me after that. And I know he doesn’t love me either, even after I was molded in his likeness. Likeness or no likeness, I’m just an asset. A business partner, not a daughter. Never a daughter. He approves of me when my actions work in his favor, but otherwise, I'm just a liability and another mouth to feed.”

Ty Lee was admittedly surprised by the confession, nodding as she set her cup on the pale pink coffee table. Throughout their entire friendship, Azula had rarely brought up her so-called “sob-story” of a childhood. Azula’s throat met a salt-water chokehold as she continued, “Frankly, I don’t know what it’s like to feel loved, and sometimes I have to admit that I’d give all of this up for that experience. Being ‘good enough’ is the closest I get to that.”

Ty Lee bit her bottom lip, playing with her braid as she tried to figure out the right words to say in response, which there were none. Shaking her head, she told her, “I don’t want to think about this anymore, could you help me get my mind off things, Ty? Like a distraction.”

“How so?” It was quite an uncharacteristic shift- Azula had once told her idle chattering and distractions for emotional distress were the farthest from practical anything could ever be. In her words, they only took time out of a day that could be spent achieving something useful.

“Tell me about your day,” she replied with a small smile, taking a sip of the tea.

In all awful honesty, Ty Lee was surprised by this somewhat unselfish move. As much as she adored and cared for Azula, she knew that it wasn’t something she would normally do. Of course, she wasn’t complaining about her sweeter side coming out- it was nice. “Yeah, sure. Well, um, someone called me ‘One of the Ty Sisters’ today. It kind of hurt- I felt invisible. Like I’m not worth a name of my own, you know?” She shook her head, “Gosh, I’m sure you don’t wanna hear about that, but it’s all that happened. Sorry to disappoint.” She usually prided herself on her ability to cheer people up- it individualized her.

Azula set her tea down, her words taking the girl aback even more. “You know, I’m not that bad.” She laughed, “You think of me coldhearted, narcissistic even. I can tell. Though your opinion might hold some truth.”

“Azula, that’s not true.” Ty Lee admitted, hearing the lie in her voice. It felt evil. She mumbled half-truth words, wishing she could bring herself to a full admission. “I care about you.” Her feelings greatly passed simply caring for Azula, and while saying she merely cared was a half truth, saying she loved her would be a lie.

Once more, she chuckled. “I know, but it doesn’t change the fact that you watch me like cornered prey, searching my eyes for mercy- perhaps an ounce of sympathy. Don’t think I don’t notice- I’m rather observant and I know you know that as well. And that sympathy you seek? It’s there, pumpkin, even if I pretend I’m above it. I promise.”

She took Ty Lee’s hands into her own as her tone softed, finally confessing, “And I care about you too, Ty, I really do.” There was a power in the admission of her one true weakness: the girl before her with the silly braid and beautiful smile.

“Azula,” she whispered, before leaning in closer, tilting her head as her eyes fluttered closed. Their noses kissed, bodies so close Azula’s eyelashes nearly brushed against Ty Lee’s cheek. Right before their lips were introduced, she suddenly found herself unable to move. The anticipation of whatever would happen next made her chest thunder with the percussion of her heart. The other girl, who knew exactly what would happen next, let her eyes fall shut, her hands rising to meet Ty Lee’s face before sealing the space between them. Ty Lee gasped, feeling her face warm up as Azula kissed her. 

Her eyes shot back open- it was happening, it was happening. The fears melted to nothing as her vision met a sea of black, her lips practically moving on their own, kissing her back with the brightest smile she could muster. It was happening.

She had thought, and even on certain and indescribably delightful occasions, dreamt of Azula in this light a few times, admittedly more times than friends should. But up until now, she claimed not to know if her thoughts were pure curiosity or genuine attraction. The flutter in her chest and the stop in time proved that she did, in fact, most definitely know.

There was something unspeakably romantic about how Azula curled the lock of hair framing Ty Lee’s face, who slowly pulled off the black blazer she wore over a white button up. She let the article of clothing fall to the floor before wrapping her arms around her shoulders, promising herself that would be as far as the two girls, defenseless and beautifully vulnerable in one another's arms, would go.

Normally the idea of falling weak in Ty Lee’s embrace would send Azula stiff- normally she wouldn’t dare to permit any sort of powerless ideology to graze the interior of her walls. Yet, something about melting into her touch and comprehending nothing but the fact that her smile was meeting those soft lips of Ty Lee’s was worth all the weakness in the world. Azula kissed her like it was a form of idolatry and was kissed like she was a goddess, Ty Lee’s humble lips praying at her shrine.

Azula pulled away first, after what could have been three minutes or three hours. “I’m sorry, that was most inappropriate of me.”

“Zulie,” Ty Lee started before giving her a smile. “Look. You just take a shower and put on my pajamas, alright baby? You know you’re always welcome to stay the night.”

She wasn’t used to this sort of kindness from anyone, and so Azula simply, and rather awkwardly, replied, “Um, thank you. I didn’t wake you, did I?” 

“Don’t worry about it, Sunshine!” The brunette gave her a bright smile, causing her to feel something she could never describe. God, Ty Lee was beyond adorable. “I was wide awake. Go shower, alright? We can cuddle.”

Azula nodded, getting up from the couch. Soon, she was in one of Ty Lee’s nightgowns, tucked underneath a blanket hiding their entangled forms.

“Goodnight, Zulie,” Ty Lee pressed a kiss to her nose. “Sweet dreams.”

“Goodnight, Ty,” she murmured sleepily in response, Ty Lee nestling into her arms as the two drifted off to sleep. She had her first sweet dream in years that night, but it couldn’t hold a flame to the sweet sensation of kissing someone, or even simply holding someone like she was; someone who you knew cared without ever having to hear those words.


End file.
